Taking Stock of 2 Thefts With Little in Common Except Their Status: Unsolved

A life preserver that hung on the back wall of Montero Bar and Grill in Brooklyn disappeared in June, and still hasn't been found.Credit
Jana Montero

In a perfect world, or at least a perfect newspaper story, the two objects, each of extreme value in its own way, would not only turn up, but would be discovered in the same place — a breathtaking trove. In this scenario, a master thief has stashed them away in his underground lair, where he gazes upon them from time to time, chuckling over a Cognac.

In the art world, the two pieces have nothing at all in common, beyond perhaps the sentimental tugs each produces. Likewise, the thefts. The painting was discovered missing from a high-tech facility that specializes in the proper storage and security of valuable art. The preserver walked out of a dive bar when everyone was looking elsewhere, perhaps at whoever was performing karaoke that night. How many human beings have been inside of both places? (Chuckle, chuckle. Sip.)

Both were crime scenes of 2013 that warranted a closer examination in this column. And despite the relative high profile of each piece — there are Montero’s regulars who could spot that life preserver if it floated past them in the East River — both thefts remain unsolved.

Not for lack of publicity. Two weeks ago, a guy in the bar told Mr. Montero he was just back from Ireland. “He said, ‘You know the story of your life preserver was in the Irish paper?’ ” Mr. Montero said. “You’re kidding me.” Mr. Montero never reported the theft to the police because he cannot imagine assigning a dollar amount to the thing.

The Rockwell painting is worth more than $1 million, and presumably too well known to fence on the black market or try to sell to a reputable dealer. It sold at auction at Sotheby’s for $1,085,000 in May, but when workers at Welpak Art Moving and Storage in Maspeth, Queens, went to ship it to the new owner on Sept. 13, it was gone.

In the weeks that followed, the police were searching for the painting while working to make sure it had not simply been misplaced in Welpak somewhere. Detective Mark Fishstein, who is investigating the theft, was asked this week whether that had been ruled out.

“It hasn’t turned up,” he said.

So, it’s definitely stolen? The whole warehouse has been searched?

Photo

In August, the actor Tom Ligon stopped a home intruder since identified as “a career burglar.”Credit
Demetrius Freeman/The New York Times

“It’s ongoing,” he said.

Any leads?

“I really can’t talk about it, unfortunately.”

So the police are as yet unable to prove that the thefts are not connected. (Chuckle, chuckle. Sip.) The identity of the Rockwell’s owner has not been released. Mr. Montero, for his part, is moving on.

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“I have another preserver that was signed by a lot of the youngsters that were on a training vessel from Galveston, Tex.,” he said. “I’m going to take that out and hang it up.”

AT least one of the city’s other mysteries seems to have been cleared up, thanks to a man who lost a sneaker.

On Aug. 1, the man was climbing into the first-floor window of an apartment in Greenwich Village when he found himself facing its resident, Tom Ligon. If the burglar spent any time parked in front of “The Young and the Restless,” he would have recognized Mr. Ligon’s longest role in his wide-ranging television career, spanning “The Jackie Gleason Show” and “Law and Order.” On the soap opera, he played a character named Lucas Lorenzo Prentiss for four years.

That day, he surprised the intruder, who was halfway in the window when Mr. Ligon punched him. The police took the sneaker for evidence.

“I got a call from one of the detectives down in the Sixth Precinct,” Mr. Ligon said this week. The police had matched DNA from the sneaker to a suspect, he was told. And he was not hard to find.

“There he was, sitting in Rikers Island,” Mr. Ligon said. The police did not release the suspect’s name because, incarcerated in an unrelated crime, he has not been charged in Mr. Ligon’s case.

“He said the guy was a career burglar,” Mr. Ligon said. “I said, ‘Well, he’s not having much of a career right now.’ ”

“You have ups and downs,” he continued. “It’s like acting.”

Email: crimescene@nytimes.com

Twitter: @mwilsonnyt

A version of this article appears in print on December 28, 2013, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Taking Stock of 2 Thefts With Little in Common Except Their Status: Unsolved. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe